CBNNews.com - RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian Authority (PA) said they uncovered a network of security officers recruited by Hamas to deliver intelligence information.

PA officials told YNet news they arrested the head of the operation and four other conspirators.

According to the unnamed PA source, the cell leader claimed Hamas had paid him tens of thousands of dollars to deliver information on the whereabouts of PA officials, who would then be targeted by Hamas operatives in the West Bank )Judea and Samaria).

The source said the PA avoided public arrests so as not to hinder reconciliation talks between the two rival factions.

A senior Hamas operative in the Gaza Strip said the story is meant to undermine negotiations on the formation of a national unity government.

"Fatah is determined to undermine the [negotiations] and is publishing cheap lies," one Hamas official in the Gaza Strip concluded.